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Private eye Calvin (Daniel Wu) is hired by Miss Wong (Grace Lam - Our Last Day, Crime Of A Beast) to tape the
sexual activities of Taiwan politician Kwai Fung-Ming (Teresa Mak). Taking along his team consisting of girlfriend
Cindy (Jenny Yam) and best friend Sam (Samuel Leung), Calvin is soon drawn to Kwai, neglecting all around him.
Subsequently he's also drawn into a complex game, beyond the simple task originally given to him...
Proving once more that headlines can green light movie projects even way past the 90s streak of "golden" Category
III cinema, Marco Mak (A Gambler's Story, The Blood Rules) directs this story based on a political scandal in Taiwan
(1*). Working with the higher rating, the often slick visualist Mak has an opportunity here to inject the basic
ingredients of sleaze, sex and thrills. Final tally: fairly pleasing but all too teasing sleaze and sex. No thrills
either.
Not that aspirations to provide a full psychological portrayal of voyeurism, politics and naughty upper class
behaviour are on display but the script penned by the alias Not A Woman (2*) thinks it can get away with barely
touching upon potentially interesting depth. For one, every glimpse into the mind of Daniel Wu's Calvin, be it his
nervous trembling or need to take sleeping pills to rest at ease is so painfully obviously setup for a payoff in the third act and here Mak can't exactly inject substance at the points where we're supposed to gasp or go "aaaah..."
either. Touching again upon some interesting turns the film does seem to want to take, the unexplained attraction of Calvin's to Kwai, the annoyance of journalists in a turbulent political world of Taiwan, herein lies detours that neither Not A Woman or director Mak utilizes.
The Peeping as a thriller is therefore extremely pedestrian and with director Mak letting his over the top/welcome
visual trickery take a backseat in favour of so called storytelling instead, this whole production sets itself up for a whole lot of trouble. Truth be told, it probably could've needed a Wong Jing excess-boast of poor jokes, violence and wild sex but still, when an aspiration exists to draw yourself away from bonk-a-thon status, then there's slight things to admire about The Peeping. The sex never goes the full frontal nudity route and at times still feel titillating but as these are part of obvious attempts to weave a surprising story, a feeling of failure enters as it's evident these become running time padding interludes instead. Then the story can go on in its flat ways and viewer frustration over the LACK OF nudity sets in! Mak isn't making any friends with his choices here.
It's no surprise then that the filmmakers manages to inject zero life in the performers such as Daniel Wu and Jenny Yam. Way too low of a project even for the arguably talented American born Chinese, Wu's participation in The Peeping reeks of a desperation to work up a filmography but it would've been so easy to have a plant doing Wu's acting. It's that lifeless. I do like the casting of Teresa Mak's looks as she's no ordinary screen beauty but behind that exterior lies wild erotic auras and mystery, at least for a little while. Her character especially crumbles thanks to strange, unwarranted dialogue about !$?*# function and a breast comparison contest in a ladies bathroom is laughable instead of being character building. Frequent triad character actor Samuel Leung comes of surprisingly well though as the righteous best friend of Calvin's....
